Raven McAllen „The Rake’s Unveiling of Lady Belle“ – 2**

I got „The Rake’s Unveiling of Lady Belle“ by Raven McAllen in exchange for an honest review .. well honesty is a big thing with this review.

It was simply … boring. I wasn’t able to feel any sympathy for any of the characters. They are boring.

Lady Belinda Howells watched her best friend’s brother being touchy with a girl she dislikes. She was hiding in a tree and later in a bush, afraid to be seen. Soon after this “event” (I mean what’s so special about it?) her father calls her to him and tells her that she is going to marry a much older man. Her solution? She runs away, hides at Lady L’s and isn’t found – nobody is looking at her best friend’s godmother for Belinda. I mean, really?

So what to do? She gets a new identity – Belle instead of Belinda and opens a fashion saloon because she has a talent: sewing. And because she had no season yet, nobody remembers her – a lady of the ton – she has a French accident, a new background story and isn’t accepting everybody as a costumer. I mean: Really?? A new accent makes it possible to live in the ton without being seen, remembered or described to somebody?

And not even Philip, the love of her teenage days, remembers her. He thinks her familiar but cannot put her face to a name – but, within a second, he is helplessly in love with her. Really? I mean … within more or less seconds he asks her to marry him – he’s a member of the ton and she’s a seamstress. Why would he do that? There is no reasonable explanation for it. Belle refuses … But he doesn’t give up. He asks her again and again and when her past comes hunting her down – in the role of her father and the finance (Who is engaged to her for years and still waiting for her return though she is of age now and cannot be handed off like back in the day when her dad told her that she will marry this fat, much older guy?)

He brings all his former mistresses to her shop to get them a wardrobe of “Dressed by Lady Belle” – I mean which woman would. I mean: Really?

 

It is impossible to like the leads. They are boring, predictable and lack of real character. And the love scene in the end – it was dry. It was like one of my students would at the age of 14. I like good romantic, erotical scene but yes, there is vocabulary I don’t need in my novels – there was too much “quim” or “pego”. There is only soo much I can take of it. I know it is Victorian slang, nevertheless are we speaking of people who were raised to be a Lady or a Lord and I am pretty sure that those wouldn’t use those words. Or can you think of Jane Austen saying “quim” or “pego”?

The most stupid line ever: “Your pego looks most uncomfortable. I’m sure it needs fresh air.” – I mean, really? I know that she thought herself stupid saying it but how can you let a lead – which you want to be a serious character – say something so stupid?

So all in all: no chemistry, no character development, no meaningful dialogues. I likes the idea but a short 80 page novella would have done it too, not worth 200+ pages.

Jenna Jaxon „Only Marriage will do“ (House of Pleasure #2) – 2**

*I got this book via Netgalley for an honest review*

If you read a book and cannot even remember a single character or a name after a week, I think that says a lot. “Only Marriage will do” by Jenna Jaxon was this kind of book. It’s the 2^nd book in the “House of Pleasure” series and it was the most predictable piece I’ve read in a very long time.

Lady Juliet Ferrers gets rescued by Captain Amiable Dawson because she makes him her betrothed in front of her maybe husband St. Cyr. He maybe got married to her via stand-in in France and came to London to collected her and bring her back to France. Amiable comes in the last second before he ravished her and without knowing he steps into Juliet’s play.

Because her brother is travelling she’s all alone in London for a couple of weeks so she thinks about travelling north to her father’s estate, to the north of Scotland. While Amiable knows about his role in her play he nevertheless is shocked that his bride-to-be is now married to Juliet’s brother. She never was in love with him anyway but she was the reason he left the US to rescue her (which is the story of book 1).

Juliet travels with only her maid to the north because he refuses to help her because of her reputation. Nevertheless within a couple of hours he cannot help himself, follows her and they start to travel together.

Do I really have to tell you how things develop? It’s so predictable. They come together because she sends her maid home (well, he thinks she is really sick) and of course they get married in Gretna Green and she is already pregnant. Oh – what a surprise!

Oh and when her brother comes back home the reader gets to know that she wasn’t just “maybe” married to St. Cyr and got married to Amiable in Gretna Green but also was betrothed to another man. I mean … wtf?

Of course things get complicated between Amiable and Juliet because of all those relations and they still have to figure out – at court – if the wedding in France was legitimate.

I really talked myself into finishing this story because if it’s predictability. I mean I felt like it’s a story one of my 15 year old wrote. It had time jumps and there was no character development. I really started to think of Juliet being a light skirt because of all those maybe husbands/ betrothed.

Additionally the dialogues were boring and more interesting parts were summed up to just a few lines.

I think 2 stars is already a lot for it.

Manda Collins „A good Rake is hard to find“ (Lord of Anarchy #1) – 2**

*I got this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

“A good Rake is hard to find” is the 1^st book in the “Lord of Anarchy” series by Manda Collins.

First of all I don’t understand why everybody on Goodreads seems to love this book, I found it – mostly – downright boring and quite bumpy.

Leonora Collins, a stubborn bluestocking and popular female poem writer,  is mourning the death of her brother Johnny who participated in races arranged by the “Lord of Anarchy”, a Regency kind of bike gang but only with racing carriages. She knows that the death hasn’t been an accident because he was a first class driver and his carriage was stolen and couldn’t be processed.

In any case she was, five years ago, engaged to Freddy, a younger son of an earl. She broke it off back then and he was sent, by his parents, to the continent because he drowned himself in alcohol day by day. She never got him a reason, just broke it off.

Next to that Freddy was one of the best friends of Johnny and when she reaches the point to investigate her brother’s point, she meets with Freddy and asks him for help. Very, very quickly he comes up with a plan – a faux pas betrothal, him becoming a member of the “Lord of Anarchy” club, because his cousin Gerard runs it, and attend club meetings.

And very soon they attend the first gathering of the club and start to investigate …

+

Where shall I start? There are many things that just don’t go smoothly in my opinion. First of all Freddy’s brother, from whom he borrows the curricle is in the country side because his wife is about to give birth. Suddenly so said sister-in-law is in London to meet Leonora with Freddy’s mom to visit her. Why on earth should she, highly pregnant, travel back to London to meet Freddy’s betrothed?

Secondly, when they sleep together for the first time, Freddy doesn’t know about Leonora’s past and he tells her that it may hurt. But he doesn’t give a damn that she is no virgin anymore which is kind of interesting because I don’t get why. Men always, in each and every novel, cared about it. He just penetrates her without speaking about pregnancy first or anything connected to them being intimate. It doesn’t make any sense in my opinion.

Third the whole thing about being barren. Leonora is confronted with a pregnant woman (sister-in-law) asking her about a poem she wrote about a mourning mother and her angle baby; a baby’s gravestone etc. and the reader knows for quite some time, that she had a baby once. But for most of the story I thought she had a stillborn child because she thought about the perfect little hands etc. but when she finally – after like a million pages – tells Freddy about it, she tells him about a miscarriage that happened pretty early in her pregnancy. She couldn’t have known the gender of the baby and all those things if it really happened in that early stage. And why is she barren? I mean if you put things like that into a storyline than you should, in my opinion, tell the reader the reasons.

And towards the end were too many people involved, storylines that just didn’t round the story up but leave it kind of unfinished. Plus the end comes quite suddenly compared to the rest of the story which is kind of a rigmarole. There is bet planned that never goes through etc. and it feels like the writer wanted to make the story more complex but didn’t manage to wrap all ends up before she had written too many pages. The last 10% seemed to hurry the story.

Next to all that – the romance scenes are passionless. They have sex in her house when her father could come into the room every second and she doesn’t care. She is independent and a bluestocking but they do not even lock the door. Why should a young woman who doesn’t want to marry at all do things like that?

All in all there are inconsistences in my opinion that make the basic story, which I liked kind of, pretty shallow. There is no passion between the characters, too many storylines that do not really end up together in a realistic way and I even got kind of bored over the chapters from time to time.

I also have to say that in my opinion the title doesn’t match the book at all.

So … I give it: 2** stars.

Cayla Kluver „Wicket Wants“ (interactive storyline) – 2**

I got the ARC „Wicked Wants“ by Cayla Kluver via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I think “Wicket Wants” was my 2^nd or 3^rd interactive book and I was so not thrilled about it. It took me about 20 minutes to read the story I wanted to read and that is not enough for me. I want an arch, a storyline with a plot. And in this one wasn’t even a real storyline. I was so disappointed.

The storyline is rather easy. Elizabeth has to marry somebody her dad picked but is in love with the neighbor son. Her love writes her a message to meet her but she met her future husband before and is fascinated by him because he is that good looking. So she doesn’t go to the midnight meeting but meets him the next day and he abuses her. She tells Edward, her to-be-husband about this event and the guy is arrested.

And Elizabeth is so very shallow. There are two scenes I remember – her being tight into her corset much too tightly and the description of her wedding gown. In my novels I read now that brides didn’t wear white for their wedding and suddenly there is a bride in white and gold? I don’t know ….

I mean where is the thrill in this story? There is none. And I was so disappointed that I didn’t even try another arch. I picked the “chapters” in which her marriage to Edward seems to be preferred.

A story that takes me 20 minutes to read isn’t worth the money in my opinion if I want to read a whole book. So no interactive storylines for me anymore.

Rating: 2**

Josi Kilpack „A Heart Revealed“ – 2**

Could I please title a new book genre „Passionless Romance”? Really … *le sigh* Oops … was this a spoiler now?
Well to tell the story without any spoiler is rather impossible.
Amber Sterling is the diamond of the first water, the star of the London season. Everybody loves her but she declines all men because she only wants a title and money. Lots of both preferable. Thomas is only the second son of an earl from Yorkshire and because of no title and no fortune she isn’t even remembering him.
Suddenly things happen. Something that changes her life completely – she is loosing her hair. Sent to Yorkshire where she is about to live isolated in a cottage far away from neighbors or the next town and has only one maid left. She isn’t used to the daily routine and she changes …. One day her neighbor is looking for documents and asks to search her library – the neighbor is Thomas.
This would be the short, short version of it.
Fact is that the story is about two different characters, developing separately from each other. She’s an egoistic b*itch in the beginning, her family is rich but in my opinion cold and only interested in their grace.
Thomas is a nice guy, I am sure, but well … no thrilling male you want to lean on. He’s the standard nice guy. Amber no bluestocking, no heroine you want to be. She’s grey. Emotionless for a long time. Well if she isn’t the center of the attention she acts like a b*itch. And even in Yorkshire it takes its time to change. Did I like any of the characters? Not really. I felt sympathy for Suzanne, the lady’s maid. But is sympathy enough to like a book – not in my opinion.
I really made myself read it, finish it but it was so lacking of passion, of … of being more than a boring Rosamunde Pilcher novel. There is really no passion, no tension – nothing. Nothing. Not even in the end – I mean, okay there is some kissing. But he touches her hip and she touches his neck – that’s as far as it goes.
The story idea was nice. Kilpack could have made so much more out of it adding chemistry, tension and yes, passion to it. To not keep it PG-rated. If I want to PG-rated stuff I watch a Walt Disney movie.
Rating: 2**

(Thanks to Netgalley to let me read this book in exchange for an honest review)

Donna Simpson „A Matchmaker’s Christmas“ – 2**

„A Matchmaker’s Christmas“ by Donna (Lea) Simpson is a standalone.

It’s a Christmas story, like the title says. An 80 year old lady, Lady Elizabeth Bournard wants to make a change this Christmas and organizes with the help of her nearly 40 year old companion Beatrice Copeland a Christmas party – or let’s say a matchmaking get together.

She has invited two young females and two males but very contrary ones. One is a Canadian sent to England to find a husband, one is going to be a reverend and doesn’t care for earthly goods and knows that no lady would marry him because he isn’t of rank or money. Vaughan is the complete opposite. He’s a lord, a rough but he also needs to get married and he would prefer a lovely young lady who takes care of house and children, while he lives the life he wants to live – not with her. And the fourth one is a young lady, a sweet and silent one, who is sent to Lady Bournard because she refused to marry a lord.

And then there is David. He’s over 40, a widower of more than twenty years with a son that age. He is Elizabeth’s godson. He is different because he doesn’t interfere with Lady Bournard’s matchmaking of the young ones.

This book tells the story of six people, four rather young ones and two around 40. Beatrice has a story of its own, why she is unmarried and tries to flee the room whenever David is around.

Of course things seem easy in the beginning but it isn’t. It’s of course a mix of emotions, lots of chemistry and long, long dialogues. And that’s exactly my point – it’s boring.

I don’t mind a story with a twist but the twist here – Beatrice’s background story – is not even just boring, it’s irrelevant and that she even tortures herself for 20 years because of it is silly. I really was like “That’s all. Cannot be!” The story about the other couples is rather predictable from the very beginning, even the one of David and Beatrice. Really, there is no point of the book where you do not know what will happen next.

That’s one point. The other is that the book has, in my opinion, not a single hot moment in it. They kiss. They kiss again. They kiss passionate – that’s more or less the description of the romantic moments. I mean if I want to read a PG rated book, I grab one of my student’s.  Not every book has to be a Kate Perce or a Jess Michaels (I adore both) but this was too little.

So the short version: If I want to read a PG rated predictable story, try this one!

Why 2 stars – because I liked the Canadian girl a lot, she was different.

I’ll probably will never read another book by this author again because there are others that are steamier and more my kind of tea than this one. The idea of the story would have been nice …

Rating: 2**

Anita Philmar „Deputy’s Bride“- 2**

I got this from Netgalley for an honest review.  “Deputy’s Bride” was written by Anita Philmar and plays in Texas, when? I don’t know, I couldn’t find it out. I’d wildly guess mid 19^th Century?

First of all I have to say that I really, really love the cover of the book it is beautiful.

So why only two stars? I was searching for the plot the whole time. Sarah is the widow of Micah, who was killed some time ago and didn’t really treat her well. He used her female attributes – allowed other man to touch her but never sleep with her. She wants, well needs to remarry because she is completely broke and doesn’t want to whore around to survive.

Deputy Bo is looking for a wife to clean his ranch and cook. He doesn’t want a virgin bride because he wants someone with experiences. So he asks a friend to help him and she brings resp. presents Sarah to him. She is very willing from the beginning to escape from the public eye she had lived in for too long.

Well soon the reader knows (because the story is only 100 pages long) that he wants a wife to sleep with him and his brother and not just the vanilla kind of way. He wants a ménage a trois, anal sex and everything involved. And suddenly Sarah is very willing to give in.

Why? I don’t get it. He may help her escape the life she had before but this quick development doesn’t make any sense to me. Yes, the sex scenes are very steamy but if I would have read the word “twat” one more time I would have gotten into an aggressive … aren’t there other synonyms? Aren’t there ways to describe sex scenes with a higher level of language? Yes, in my opinion language is a very important thing if it comes to sex or erotical scenes. For me it is 100% turn off if this kind of language is used and the book is full of low level anatomical words.

And is there a story? I mean Sarah had a horrible husband she married voluntarily after her father got killed. Well, okay. She shoots the man, Nevada; who wants her stallion for breeding because Micah shall have lost it in a bet. Nothing happens because Nevada nearly killed Bo’s brother. They get rid of Nevada’s son who also wants the horse for breeding or at least its papers. And in the end they have a real ménage a trois with double penetration.

So where was the story? And all that within 100 pages? If this whole thing would have been developed over 300 pages and would have taken place within half a year of time, I’d say okay. But, I can only guess, it was like a couple of weeks in which she told him everything and got his willing servant. It doesn’t make any sense to me.

Why it got 2 stars nevertheless: First I liked the characters and second I liked the idea. Unfortunately I have to say that I will not read another book by Anita Philmar.

Kate Whitsby „Mail Order Bride Audrey – A Clean Historical Mail Order Bride Story“ (Brides Of Montana # 2) -1*

I do not give up a book very often but it happens. With this one I stopped reading after 30 percent. It was a freebee on Amazon a couple of weeks ago and I thought let’s try something new, something with Cowboys and the Wild West. Maybe it’s not my genre? Maybe it was too little romance and steamy erotic for me?

Honestly thinking back I am not even sure if I can tell the first 30 percent clearly because I fell asleep that often during it. Everybody who knows me I go through books pretty quickly even when I am busy with work because it’s my way to “chill”.

This one is the 2^nd book of the “Brides of Montana” series and the female lead seems to be who got married to Owen after he ordered her. In the 1^st 30 percent we learn a little about her past for example that she learned how to ride at her home place and that she came from money, at least what it seems to me. One day she is working like a man the heard on their annual drive to the auction in Helena (at least I think). Of course things happen, of course the wheel of the carriage breaks while Audrey is driving it. Of course stuff like that happens again and again and always it’s Audrey who has the solution.

Maybe the writer wants to tell the story of a strong and independent woman but Audrey isn’t interesting. She’s no bluestocking, nothing like that. She knows how to ride a horse because of her family and she knows to be independent. But well that doesn’t make a strong and interesting character to me. It’s a normal one, a usual 0815 female lead. And even her marriage to Owen isn’t interesting. The romance scenes are so extremely “steam less” in the first 30 percent of the book that I decided to read the latest Jess Michaels instead.

Stars: 1*

Rachel Brimble „What a Woman Desires“ – 2.5***

I got this book for free for an honest review – thanks to Netgalley.

After reading the description at Netgalley I really had my hopes up that I may get some naughty Victorian romance with a heroine who isn’t that typical. But well the heroine wasn’t but the book wasn’t naughty at all. It was rather boring. But why?

“What a Woman Desires” is a book by Rachel Brimble.

The story is easy. Monica Danes ran away from her family home to be an actress in Bath 5 years ago. During the story we get to know why and it’s a story of its own. When her father dies she gets a letter from her sister informing her that she may come home for the funeral and that she needs help with their mother and the estate.

She comes back and on her way she meets Thomas, a man her age she was in love with when she was a teen. He kind of rescues her and Stephanie. Thomas was the right hand of her dad and helped managing the estate but he was only a helping hand, nobody with a title. He grew up there and that was it.

The problem is that Monica hasn’t had any contact to her family because they thought she ruined herself by becoming an actress. Thomas doesn’t judge her but want her back in Biddlestone but she made carrier and doesn’t plan to stay. She wants back to Bath and on the stage as soon as possible.

On the other hand there is Monica’s mom who isn’t a nice person on the one side but turning crazy on the other. She has her good moments but mostly she isn’t herself anymore. And Jane, Monica’s sister, who doesn’t want to be alone with all those problems. But the question is who will manage the estate and who will inherit it at all.

Well if you think that something may happen within the first half of the book – you cannot be more wrong. Little dialogues, little we really get to know. The only thing I read over and over again is her need to go back to Bath. The rest was unimportant. I think I was about 56% into the book when I started to skip long descriptions and searched for dialogues. That’s not a good sign.

There is a twist with the doctor in the book but I am not sure if it’s really matching the time to be honest. If somebody would talk so open to a foreigner about something that big. But you have to find out yourself about it.

I think it was a boring book, not thrilling but maybe it’s just her style. I really missed lots of dialogues, cloth descriptions and yes, passion and lust. A plus point is to be given for the lovely Monica. I liked her. Not that she was thrilling or anything but nice. I still do not get a picture in front of me when I now write about her which is kind of sad because usually I always get a very clear image of the main characters because of the great descriptions.

For me it was 2.5*** book and I probably will not read anything of this writer again.

„The Duke and his Duchess“ by Grace Burrowes – 2.5***

I read in some reviews how can you not love the Windhams … well I do not and it is easy. I mean I liked the book and I have never read anything by Grace Burrowes before so maybe it wasn’t eh best start to read #0,6 of a series – whatever that means anyway. I mean I get 0,5 but 0,6. Well …
I liked the characters, mostly Esther, I felt with her but somehow … it is hard to described, I just liked her. Usually I love a strong female lead and she eventually is strong but … just not special. She gets one baby after another, doesn’t really care about her husband’s former mistresses but she’s an amazing mother with a sense of what’s good for the kids that’s why she takes them in.
I really felt with Ester and her post natal depression and everything connected to it.

But this family story … it’s so confusing. I know its #0,6 but anyway. What comes before 0,6? I mean usually I start with part 1. I know that there is a 0,5 but nevertheless the family contracture was confusing in my opinion.

I am not native English but German speaking and I read a lot in English, lots of romance, crime and suspense even classics but Burrowes used quite a lot of words (compared to others) which were unknown to my 2 kindle dictionaries and Wikipedia. I don’t enjoy that. I am willing to look up words but not finding them on a regular base ….

Another thing is that this is historical romance but it wasn’t steamy at all, the love scenes were rather boring, uneventful, not even romantic or sensitive. They simply going to bed, one touched the other … not very thrilling. Judging from the cover I waited for more

Maybe I will give the real part 1 a chance in a few weeks. Let’s see.